12/06/2025
Arc Raiders’ own developers have been very clear that the game is built first and foremost as a PvPvE extraction shooter, not a pure co-op PvE title. In their “What’s Next for ARC Raiders?” development blog, Embark describes the game as a survival extraction shooter where the tension comes from both the ARC robots and other players sharing the same spaces.  In later commentary explaining the shift from the original PvE concept, they’ve said that a purely PvE experience likely wouldn’t sustain a healthy long-term player base, and that adding PvP was a strategic choice to create more emergent stories, higher stakes, and a more dynamic economy over time.  In interviews summarized by community recaps, devs have also talked about wanting “equal presence” of AI enemies and human Raiders so that danger can come from any direction, making each raid unpredictable and stressful in a good way. 
A lot of players who defend PvP as essential lean on exactly those ideas: risk, tension, and replayability. On Steam and Facebook, you see posts arguing that if Arc Raiders became PvE-only, once your stash is maxed and you’ve got good guns, there’d be nothing left but farming meds and basic supplies.  Others point out that the “heart-in-your-throat” feeling of hearing footsteps nearby, deciding whether to ambush or avoid, and finally making a clean extract only exists because a real player could ruin your run at any second. One popular Steam thread literally says PvP is “annoying but entirely necessary,” because taking it out would remove the suspense and excitement of a successful raid.  On Reddit, long-time extraction-genre players are trying to coach newer players through this, explaining that the whole loop—risking gear, reading audio cues, making judgment calls—is built around the assumption that other humans are part of the ecosystem. 
At the same time, there’s a loud contingent that either wants PvP toned down or separated into dedicated modes or servers, and the devs have tried to meet them halfway by promising that main quests will never force you into PvP, even while the overall design stays PvPvE.  The timing matters here: Arc Raiders’ first progression “wipe” is coming up via the Expedition Project—an optional reset system that lets players voluntarily wipe their account for permanent bonuses, with a big departure window and associated stash reset landing on December 21, 2025.  A lot of players see that wipe/reset window as a natural moment for Embark to tweak the formula: maybe refine PvP incentives, re-balance risk vs reward, or experiment with better separation between PvE-focused and PvP-hungry players—without abandoning the core identity that many believe makes Arc Raiders work in the first place. 
